Web Billboards

by Greg Kise Friday, Aug. 18, 2000 at 2:24 PM
greg@intermedia7.com

Web Billboards to Hit Corporations

I have recently developed an idea that could be both effective and highly aggravating to the corporate enemy.

The idea is something I've coined "Web Billboards". These are simple non-interactive web pages (no fancy HTML -- just pure message) targeted at corporations and corporate culture and registered with search engines. My first example piece can be found at www.intermedia7.com/art/ritalin.html.

The goal, of course, would be to start seeing spoof ads -- or at very least cautionary public messages - showing up in top 10 beside the real corporate website. Very funny. My guess is that target corporations would rupture a spleen over this. Cheap, well designed, hit ads showing up alongside expensive corporate websites. Someone would cry, someone would sue. If all went well -- could catch on among the currently non-involved.

Right now I have any click on my ad pointing to www.adbusters.org. But you could even direct the clicks to appropriate corporate site. Watch them complain that we are sending hits to them -- after warning consumers to beware of marketing misinformation.

The beauty is that we can target pieces to any specific set of keywords from large categories (like Sport Utility Vehicles and Government) to individual corporations (Monsanto).

So all you graphic designers and non-designers out there, make an ad, drop it into a simple low-tech web page, and register it with search engines. Have fun, spread the word!

Original: Web Billboards